VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
“Support from Russian citizens has always helped us, and I’m confident that the government’s future line-up will rely on the people. We must never forget about the needs of ordinary people. We must always remember how government-level decisions influence the lives of all ordinary Russian citizens.”
"I hope that the new programme for drafting technical regulations prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade will contain an exhaustive list of the documents, which we must adopt in 2010 and 2011 if we are to, finally, draw a line under this. The real economy should be given an opportunity to produce goods under modern standards and rules, which should encourage its development, not be a burden to it."
"We had complicated and lengthy but constructive talks with our Belarusian partners about crude oil supplies to the republic. We have reached a mutually acceptable decision. Russian oil will be supplied to Belarus duty-free to fully meet its domestic demand. However, duties will be levied for all additional supplies, processed and exported to third countries."
"We therefore need to take additional steps to create an investment-friendly environment. It implies fine-tuning the taxation system to ensure that it encourages innovations by lifting administrative barriers, optimising the state monitoring procedures and developing up-to-date technical regulations."
"Our primary goal is to diversify our economy, and to break from mono-economy. In the first place, we will encourage companies, both Russian and foreign, dealing in our priority sectors."
"Last year was difficult for both Russia and our foreign partners. We all faced serious problems. This situation, however, didn't stop the inflow of direct foreign investments to Russia, which, as a preliminary evaluation shows, exceeded $40 billion in 2009."
"We will make with priority given to support for young musicians. Over half of the four billion roubles appropriated for grants will be allotted for young musicians, choreographic and music schools, conservatories and so on. We are certainly going to support touring musicians. People living in remote Russian regions must not feel alienated from the country's cultural life."
"I would like to note that support for music will always be one of the government's top priorities in culture. A total of 6.4 billion roubles will be allocated from the federal budget for musicians and choreographers in 2010."
"We must seek due order on the external borders of the Customs Union. We will not allow any kind of gray zones for unscrupulous moneymakers to take advantage of. At the same time, honest businessmen must see all the advantages of integration and the Customs Union. This is even more critical given that we set ourselves a very important goal -establishing a common economic space, which we plan to go into effect on January 1, 2012. This suggests an even closer integration. I think comment is needless. A territory with a population of 170 million people could easily become an attraction for capital and high technology, which we have discussed so much recently."
"To resolve the problem as it stands now, after deciding that these vessels can fish in our economic zone if they are registered in accordance with Russian legislation, and to pursue any other related problems, we should do the following: The owners of these vessels built with the above-mentioned loan should register them as the property of the Russian Federation. After that, these vessels will be reregistered in accordance with Russian legislation, including registration with the Federal Agency for Fishery, so that the crews will be able to start using these vessels immediately. The Federal Agency for Fishery will either lease these vessels back to the companies, or sell the vessels back to them but only on condition that they resolve their debt completely, some owners of which have repaid 85%-90% of the loan."
"The system of education institution accreditation, which is given the right to issue state certificates and diplomas, poses certain questions as well. The system is too cumbersome, with accreditation services being rather costly. Educational institutions spent some 1.9 billion roubles on these services in 2009 alone. The costs for university accreditation reach 1.5 billion roubles, and we all understand that these costs are passed on to the students in the end. I believe that educational institutions must be relieved from licensing and accreditation fees, replaced by a fixed and transparent state duty so that it will be clear to everyone how much to pay."
"The accreditation system [educational institutions] must be efficient and transparent. We need to take advantage of international best practices. Public organisations, professional associations and those who will end up employing university and vocational school graduates must be involved in redefining the accreditation process. We need to use digital technology and the opportunities the Internet offers."
"Universities alone must submit quite a weighty folder, about 250 documents, 3,000 pages [to obtain the licence] in total. We cannot ensure a proper quality of education simply by making organisations collect reams of paperwork. The existing procedure needs overhauling and streamlining. In my view, licenses should not be limited in term. At the same time, the penalties for license and regulation violation must be toughened. Fire safety inspections and inspections of education conditions and general quality must be regular, rigorous and unbiased."
"From my viewpoint, it is necessary to manage licensing and state accreditation policies making them effective processes for education development. We must encourage a healthy competition in the education market, screening out establishments that do not comply with contemporary standards. Some 140,000 educational institutions in Russia need licenses."
"In the past four years a total of 1,250 billion roubles have been allocated to education from federal sources alone. It is quite a big sum, given our expenditures in general. It is a huge sum! We launched a general modernization effort within the framework of the Education national project. We will continue to regard this work as an absolute priority."
"As for energy, we know that there are problems with hydroelectric power in Venezuela due to a drought. We are willing to help by supplying equipment to offset shrinking energy generation-in particular, mobile gas turbine power stations. We can do this very quickly if necessary."
"This meeting concludes efforts started a year ago to set up the necessary conditions for the development of Junin 6, one of the world's largest oilfields. A consortium of Russian oil companies is ready to transfer a $600 million bonus, as was previously agreed upon, as soon as the Venezuelan parliament ratifies today's agreement. This is the beginning of a huge cooperative effort. I am confident that it will proceed according to plan and pay the corresponding dividends for Venezuela and Russia."
In 2004 and 2005 we began discussing the issue of writing off a large portion of the Iraqi national debt to the Russian Federation. We eventually came to an agreement with the Iraqi government and wrote off an unprecedented 90%, which is also a large amount in absolute terms, over $10 billion. Iraq is still in a predicament, but the situation was even worse at that time. Our efforts were meant as support and assistance for the new Iraqi leadership in their aspirations to restore the country's economy. From the very beginning we anticipated that the Iraqi government would welcome our oil and gas companies' entrance into the Iraqi oil market. What has happened is a positive result of this, a welcome event.
"As you know, amendments to the law on technical regulation have recently been passed to speed up and simplify the decision-making process. In particular, the amended law allows some appropriate decision to be made at the ministerial level. We propose transferring relevant powers to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. I expect this arrangement to speed up the process of updating the regulatory framework for our industry. The new rules will free manufacturers from unnecessary barriers, improve production and facilitate Russia's emergence in world markets. To be sure, the basic purpose of the new regulations is to promote the modernisation of the entire national economy".
"It would be better if we could teach Russian to people who want to study here in advance. Also, more people would like to study here in that case. We are aware of this fact, and we are trying to act on this issue, first of all in other CIS countries. We are sending textbooks there, training Russian-language teachers and starting courses. We would like to do this in more countries. Education over the internet and using modern technology play a big role in this respect".
